Seafood dip is a savory dipping sauce made essentially with seafood which may be shrimp, crab meat, or lobster. The dip may be prepared with either one seafood item or a combination of two or more. Mayonnaise and/or sour cream are the main ingredients that are used as the base for the dip. Any soft cheese, along with chopped onions or onion powder, is often incorporated into the dipping sauce. A few recipes suggest the use of some kind of sauce like Worcestershire sauce or Tabasco sauce to make the dip spicier. It is generally seasoned with pepper. The dip can be either prepared by combining all the ingredients together or can be prepared in a layered form. Seafood dips can be served both hot and cold in the form of appetizers along with crackers or chips.
Commonly Used Ingredients and Preparation Overview of Seafood Dips
A popular seafood dip recipe suggests the use of lobster, crab meat, milk, lemon juice, chopped onions, salt, paprika, curry powder, and cream cheese as the ingredients.
Lemon juice, milk, salt, paprika, curry powder, and onions are blended together in a food processor before adding cream cheese and seafood. This is a perfect dip for chips and vegetable dippers. A recipe variant suggests using either crab or lobster as the seafood item in place of using both of them.
Seafood Dip Recipe Variations
Among several recipe variations, a few popular ones have been discussed below.
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Layered seafood dip- the recipe for this dip suggests layering the bottom of the serving container with cream cheese mix (a mix of cream cheese, mayonnaise, and sour cream), pouring cocktail sauce (a mix of tomato ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce) over it, spreading a layer of green onions, tomatoes, and green bell pepper, and topping the entire material with shrimp and crabmeat. The layered dip is refrigerated after sprinkling mozzarella cheese on the top.
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Cold seafood based dip- The most popular cold version of the seafood based dip suggests mixing together chopped water chestnuts, mayonnaise, shrimp, mustard, chopped parsley, green onions, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, crab, and sour cream, and serving it chilled.
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Hot seafood dip- shrimp (without tails) is blended along with cheese and onion powder, and seasoned with pepper and salt. It is then placed on a bread loaf which has been hollowed out, covered with the hollowed top, and baked after covering it with aluminum foil.
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Artichoke based dip- the recipe for this dip suggests mixing together artichoke hearts, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, and frozen shrimp and crabmeat. The mixture is baked for a few minutes, sprinkled with parsley and bread crumbs, and baked again for a few minutes before serving it hot with crackers.
Serving Seafood Dips
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Seafood dips go well along with chips.
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They are perfect accompaniments to crudités.
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Seafood dip is served popularly with unsalted crackers.